S.M.A.R.T., an acronym for self-monitoring analysis and reporting technology, is an industry term of art used to describe the technology used to monitor and predict device performance. Drive failure prediction mechanisms, such as S.M.A.R.T., monitor various components of the drive in order to predict whether a drive might fail in the future. S.M.A.R.T. technology consists of software that resides both on the drive and on the host computer. The drive software monitors various components of the drive, while the host software interfaces with the drive, and determines whether the drive is functioning up to predetermined reliability standards.
In order to increase the performance of future versions of S.M.A.R.T., and similar drive failure prediction mechanisms, such mechanisms will need to be able to test drives offline for extended periods of time. However, the drives that need to be tested offline are often online, in use, and, therefore not available for extended periods of offline testing. Accordingly, what is needed is a system and a method for taking online drives offline, that allows concurrent processing of input/output requests directed at the physical drive being taken offline.